Magical Realism and the Fantastic

In this chapter we encounter the zoharic representation of reality as an enchanted realm, one in which miracles erupt in the ordinary stream of human events, where ordinary experience opens into an alternate reality of the fantastic. In many zoharic cases, I have argued, these narrative scenes may be characterized as instances of magical realism, a depiction of terrestrial life that inserts an otherworldly dimension blended smoothly with the representation of ordinary reality. Here we observe structures and themes such as: sensory ambiguity and temporal confusion; entrance into a fantastical and otherwordly domain through portals in the mundane realm; representation of a dynamic heavenly mythology that involves shape-shifting celestial beings.

Encounters along the Way

Studies the phenomenon of journey and encounter in zoharic narrative, with special attention to the poetics of anagnorisis — the drama of character unveiling in which superficial appearances are inverted, seeming fools revealed to be mystic sages. Also studies the ways in which encounters with the natural world (including trees, flowers, and stars) serve as stimuli for the discovery and exposition of mystical secrets.

Introduction

The first chapter sets the stage for the broader project of the book; it begins with the idea that the Zohar may be approached as a classic of literary art, probing how the term “classic” has been used in the study of religion and philosophical hermeneutics. I will delve into the following issues: the contours of a literary approach to the Zohar and its relationship to the evolution of zoharic authorship and redaction theory; explore the nexus of mysticism and literature (both narrative and poetry) in comparative perspective; address the relationship between fiction, imagined history, and the merging of time between the medieval and (imagined) ancient periods; and explore the manner in which the Zohar operates with a diasporic-exilic consciousness, imagining the Holy Land from the distance of thirteenth-century Castile.

Conclusions

IN THIS BOOK I have studied the Zohar as a work of literature, seeking to understand the ways in which this corpus should be appreciated not only as a masterpiece of Jewish thought, theology, and exegesis but also as a great achievement of the Jewish narrative imagination. Presenting a poetics and morphology of zoharic storytelling, I have approached the text less from the vantage point of the history of ideas, and more through the phenomenology of literary forms. In short, I have set out to read the ...

The Zoharic Frame-tale in Context

Situates zoharic narrative literature in its historical and comparative contexts, examining works of Jewish and non-Jewish frametale narratives from this time and place. Through consideration of works by Avraham Ibn Ezra, Yosef Ibn Zabara, Yehudah Al Ḥarizi, Yiẓḥaq Ibn Sahula, Juan Ruiz, and Alfonso X, among others, this chapter demonstrates the vivid ways in which zoharic storytelling ought to be understood as part of a broader cultural phenomenon. Structures, themes, and commonalities studied include: the dynamic of anagnorisis and the wandering quest for wisdom; the extensive use of esoteric speech (the language of secrets, hiddenness, and revelation) in the context of frame-tale narration; the construction of the passionate master-disciple relationship; and the dramatic yearning for Holy Mary and Shekhinah (among kabbalists and Christian writers, respectively) when spiritual seekers are lost on the road and fear for their safety.

The Play of Borders and Genre

Studies the way narrative and exegesis in the Zohar are woven together in an intricate tapestry of literary art, very often setting the stage or responding to one another. Not only do mystical midrashim emerge from a dramatized fictional context in which the companions are found, the zoharic authors play with the boundaries of genre, allowing story to concretize a homiletical principle, and presenting exegesis as a rhetorical response to the “lived experience” of the fictional plane. Special attention is given to the interplay of light and darkness, to the correlation of Shekhinah to the journey of the human mystics, and the implication that Shekhinah can be invoked by the kabbalist through mystical conversation on the road.

Narrative Ethics

Zoharic narrative includes a strong ethical current, one in which the stories are presented as exempla of the virtuous and pious life. In this chapter we study a story-based moral discourse concerning a cluster of ethical ideals in the Zohar. These include the virtues of forgiveness; concern for the poor; hospitality; and the control of anger. These stories are studied through a lens adapted from the field of narrative ethics, a fertile integration of moral philosophy and literary studies.

Voice, Gesture, and Drama

Explores the ways in which the Zohar functions as a dramatic and performative literature, as a corpus in which the quest for mystical wisdom and the dynamics of its transmission are represented through exclamatory monologue, physical gesture, and expressions of reverence, lament, gratitude, celebration, and anxiety.